AP National News

By BASSEM MROUE and KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — For years, the people of Aleppo bore the brunt of bombardment and fighting when their city, once Syria’s largest and most cosmopolitan, was among the civil war’s fiercest battle zones. Even that didn’t prepare them for the devastation and terror wreaked by this week’s

By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers are trading Russell Westbrook to Utah and reacquiring guard D’Angelo Russell from Minnesota in a three-team, eight-player deal, a person with knowledge of the trade told The Associated Press on Wednesday night. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP Entertainment Writer PHOENIX (AP) — Sheryl Lee Ralph is living a career dream: The “Abbott Elementary” star won her first Emmy last year and will lend her powerful vocals as a Super Bowl pregame performer this weekend. With all her success, the veteran actor-singer only wishes her late parents were

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An international team of investigators says it found “strong indications” Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the supply of heavy anti-aircraft weapons to Ukrainian separatists who shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 with a Russian missile in 2014. But the Joint Investigation Team said Wednesday they

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un brought his young daughter to a huge military parade showing off the latest hardware of his fast-growing nuclear arsenal, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the United States, state media said Thursday. North Korean photos of Wednesday night’s

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Defense Department will remove surveillance cameras made by Chinese Communist Party-linked companies from its buildings. The Australian newspaper says at least 913 cameras, intercoms, electronic entry systems and video recorders developed and made by the Hikvision and Dahua companies are in Australian government and agency

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A tiny California mouse now has a big title after winning a Guinness World record for longevity. A Pacific pocket mouse named Pat — after “Star Trek” actor Patrick Stewart — received the Guinness approval Wednesday as the oldest living mouse in human care at the ripe age of 9 years

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press When President Joe Biden called on the U.S. to address the nation’s deadly overdose crisis, it touched off criticism from two sides. Some Republicans frame the destruction wrought by the synthetic opioid fentanyl as a border security issue and say Biden has made it worse. Some lawmakers jeered him during

By AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — More than two dozen Republican Montana lawmakers are co-sponsoring a bill that would allow students to misgender and deadname their transgender peers without punishment. LGBTQ supporters contend the bill would allow the bullying of a population of kids already struggling for acceptance. The sponsor argues

By JUAN A. LOZANO and MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas has executed an inmate convicted of killing three teenagers while they slept in a Texas Panhandle home more than 25 years ago. John Balentine’s attorneys had argued his trial and death sentence were marred by racial bias. He received a lethal

By LISA MASCARO, ZEKE MILLER and FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden suggested that Republicans want to slash Medicare and Social Security, the GOP howls of protest during his State of the Union address showcased a striking apparent turnaround for the party that built a brand for years trying to

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) — A U.S. judge has upheld Washington’s residency requirement for involvement in the state’s legal cannabis industry — a decision at odds with a federal appeals court ruling concerning a similar requirement in Maine. A man who owns a chain of Washington cannabis stores called Zips, Scott Atkinson,

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — An estimated 27.3 million people watched President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on television Tuesday night. The Nielsen company says that was the second smallest audience for the annual event in at least 30 years. Biden’s audience was down nearly 28% from 2022.

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania is now the latest state where a judge has found the public school funding system to be unconstitutional. But the experience of other states suggests there’s no guarantee of swift, significant or longstanding change for poorer school districts. Scholars who have studied school funding litigation

By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has asked the board of commissioners of the state’s marijuana and alcohol regulating authority to remove its executive director and other leaders who allegedly abused their position for personal gain. An internal investigation by the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission concluded that

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — An inmate convicted of killing three teenagers while they slept in a Texas Panhandle home more than 25 years ago is facing execution amid allegations that his trial was marred by racial bias. It had been unclear whether John Balentine’s execution, scheduled for Wednesday evening at

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania is now the latest state where a judge has found the public school funding system to be unconstitutional. But the experience of other states suggests there’s no guarantee of swift, significant or longstanding change for poorer school districts. Scholars who have studied school funding litigation

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Black lawmakers in Mississippi are denouncing efforts by the majority-white and Republican-led state Legislature to grab power from the majority-Black and Democratic-led capital city of Jackson. “The actions being taken by our legislative leadership amount to a symbolic decapitation of Black elected leadership,” Democratic Sen.

By MEHMET GUZEL, GHAITH ALSAYED, SUZAN FRASER and ZEYNEP BILGINSOY Associated Press GAZIANTEP, Turkey (AP) — The president of Turkey acknowledged “shortcomings” in his country’s response to the world’s deadliest earthquake in more than a decade. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the comment Wednesday as hope dwindled that more survivors would emerge from the rubble

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida lawmakers have advanced proposals to strip Disney of its self-governing status, expand a controversial migrant transportation program and strengthen prosecutions tied to the state’s election police unit. The bills cleared separate committees and the Senate on Wednesday. The measures come as part of a special